Censorship - Hardcover

by Mark Paxton (Author)

Ever since the Bill of Rights became the cornerstone on which individual Americans' rights and liberties rest, the practical realities of honoring the grand principles of the First Amendment have been hotly contested, and none more so than freedom of expression. From governmental limits on robust, even vicious, colonial- and Federal-era newspaper attacks to the USA PATRIOT Act to efforts to rein in the vast and anarchic Internet, the First Amendment protection of free expression has been virtually under siege by various forms of censorship, some clearly pernicious and others evidently benign. This book guides the reader through these many-faceted historical controversies, always with an eye toward contemporary and future challenges.

Author Biography

MARK PAXTON is a professor in the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Missouri State University, where he has taught since 1995. He has written extensively on First Amendment issues, particularly as they apply to college media and students' freedom of expression, and he has been active in the American Civil Liberties Union for two decades. Before entering academia, Professor Paxton was a reporter and news editor for the Associated Press and for newspapers in West Virginia and Tennessee.